On 7.30 last night on ABC TV, in an interview with Leigh Sales, NRL star Jonathan Thurston mentioned buying a lottery ticket from the newsagents. It was a throwaway line in a terrific interview on the ABC current affairs program. Thurston’s comment demonstrates the natural connection between lotteries and newsagencies in the minds of Australians.
Here’s a Vine from the interview:
Thurston’s comment stuck with me all night. Why don’t newsagents talk up their businesses as lottery outlets to reinforce the already deep connection in the minds of Australians? While plenty do individually, why not collectively? Why not build on what many Australians already think?
Why don’t newsagents fund their own advertising promoting the newsagency channel for lottery products? It is the type of proactive marketing that, if done right, could get the attention of Tatts at a time they could be considering alternatives. It is the type of campaign that could make the channel more appealing.
The campaign could even evolve and question why you’d buy a ticket anywhere else, maybe even mocking big businesses compared to the community connected small business newsagency channel. However, any mocking or questioning would need to be careful as negative ads run the risk of looking political and turning people off.
Sure such campaigns would cost money. But surely an investment in a positive shopper traffic focused campaign would be more valuable than the vast sum spend on the negative campaign run by NANA and the ANF getting signatures for a petition to NSW politicians.
And while not all newsagents sell lottery products, enough do for the type of campaign I suggest to work.
The Thurston interview reminded me that when it comes to buying a lottery ticket people think of newsagents. That is a solid basis on which to build a campaign. If the campaign was successful at strengthening the connection and sales it could do more to infuse Tatts Group next moves than all the negative campaign of the industry associations.
Look at the Mining Tax. The miners took their campaign to TV. Sure they have more money. But money does not necessarily control the success of the campaign.
I urge those who claim to be leaders in the channel to think through this idea inspired by the Jonathan Thurston interview. Give some thought to creating TV and radio ads to pitch the local newsagency for your next lottery ticket purchase. Show the channel as a network of small business retailers working proactively together commercially rather than complaining for protection.
If you are skeptical about this, look at the numbers. Two thousand newsagents who sell lottery products each investing $200 would provide a $400,000 of funding. This would be plenty for the type of campaign I propose – for the production of multiple TVCs and their airing across the day.
The right creative could be very effective in the competitive positioning of newsagencies.
Close to 150 newsagents packed the Rydges Surry Hills hotel in Sydney from Sunday until this afternoon for the second newsXpress national conference of 2015. Yesterday was business sessions including insights from leading suppliers while today was a four hour open round-table discussion on business growth strategies. The rooms were packed and newsagents fully engaged talking about the future in traditional and non traditional product areas.
